Chapter 141 Space-Time Particle Capturer

[Space-Time Particle Capturer].

The moment Lin Xian heard this, he knew that Liu Feng was referring to this thing.

Everyone moved forward to examine it together.

These two space-time particle capturers really looked almost like rice cookers.

"They really look like rice cookers," Chu Anqing said with emotion.

"Makes perfect sense!" Gao Yang retorted.

"In the *Dragon Ball* manga, Master Roshi sealed King Piccolo with a rice cooker. From this perspective, a rice cooker is indeed an incredible sealing artifact. Maybe it really can capture that magical thing!"

Huang Que gave Gao Yang a look that said, [Are you an idiot?], then looked at Gao Yang, Chu Anqing, and Wei Cheng.

"You three go to another training room to train on other projects first. We have some things to discuss with Lin Xian."

Wei Cheng nodded and left with Gao Yang and Chu Anqing.

In the huge training room, only Huang Que, Lin Xian, and Liu Feng remained.

"Liu Feng, now you can say whatever you want."

Liu Feng nodded and looked at Lin Xian.

"Lin Xian, this is actually the [Space-Time Particle Capturer], but Huang Que told me not to tell them for the time being, and to use alpha matter instead."

"It's okay, I understand. Continue."

Liu Feng squatted down, opened one of the space-time particle capturers, and let Lin Xian see the structure inside…

Completely unremarkable.

It really looked exactly like a rice cooker.

"To make a capturer like this, you're quite the talent," Lin Xian said sarcastically.

"This is already the optimal structure and size."

Liu Feng explained.

"It's not difficult to temporarily restrain the space-time particle, but I considered unexpected situations. What if it runs away? So… if we shrink the [field] that binds the space-time particle and increase its density, like this, it can instantly render the space-time particle inactive."

"Inactive?"

Lin Xian asked.

"You mean the space-time particle is still jumping around? Didn't you say it was very stable before?"

"It's about the same if you understand it as jumping around," Liu Feng nodded.

"When I said it was stable before, I meant it was stable in terms of chemical and physical properties, even morphological stability, not stability in terms of its trajectory or route."

"In the past half month or so, my tracking and research on space-time particles have become increasingly in-depth, and I have discovered that the trajectory of this particle… is not at all what we understand it to be."

Liu Feng looked around, randomly tore a piece of paper from the back of Wei Cheng's notebook, crumpled it into a ball the size of a ping-pong ball, and held it in front of Lin Xian.

"For example, this paper ball is the [space-time particle] that is flying towards Earth. It has now crossed Jupiter, is chasing Earth, and has not decelerated. It is about to enter the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter's orbit."

"According to our universe's understanding of the movement of objects, it should always be [continuous], right?"

Liu Feng held the small paper ball in his hand, moved it to the left, moved it to the right, and then turned on a frenzy, flying it up, down, left, and right.

"Look, Lin Xian, according to our daily understanding of the movement of objects, no matter how this small paper ball moves, it always has a [trajectory], it is [continuous], it will always pass through a certain point on the path at a certain time, and then it can reach its destination."

"Can you understand this statement? It's like you now take a high-speed camera and record my movement of the small paper ball with the slowest slow-motion lens, then no matter at what point in time you pause this video, you can see the small paper ball, you can see the small paper ball in a certain position, it will never disappear out of thin air… Even if it is accurate to 0.00001 seconds, you can accurately find the position of this small paper ball."

Lin Xian nodded.

"This is easy to understand."

Rather, isn't that how the movement of objects should be?

Whether it's a person running around the playground for a lap,

Or a plane flying from Donghai to the Imperial Capital,

Or a satellite orbiting the Earth once,

Or Voyager 1 spacecraft flying out of the solar system,

And so on, and so on.

The trajectories of all objects, whether large or small, fast or slow, have trajectories and paths.

It's impossible for a person to stand in a room and then suddenly disappear in the room and appear outside the room in the next second.

That's not realistic.

People always have to go out the door or climb out the window; they always have to pass through a certain path to reach their destination.

"I can understand the concept of continuity you mentioned," Lin Xian said.

"Instead, I'm more curious… what does an [incontinuous movement] look like?"

"It's like this."

Liu Feng raised the paper ball in his left hand, held it tightly so it couldn't be seen.

Then, he stretched out his right hand and opened it for Lin Xian to see—

Inside, a small paper ball appeared.

"Then, the next movement." Liu Feng pointed to the ground to the left, where another small paper ball appeared.

"That space-time particle moves like this."

"Its trajectory is discontinuous, but rather jumps, suddenly disappearing from this place, and then immediately appearing not far away! It advances in a flashing manner, using easy-to-understand words from the game…"

"[This space-time particle does not run, it does not fly, but constantly flashes forward, its trajectory is not continuous, very jumpy. ]"

Flash…

Lin Xian naturally understood that this was a common skill in online games, and it was naturally very appropriate to use it to describe the trajectory of space-time particles.

"Are you saying," Lin Xian tried to organize his words.

"The general route of that space-time particle is indeed flying towards Earth, but in reality its trajectory is not a straight line, nor is it a curve or arc, even… it has no route at all. It is constantly flashing, flickering, suddenly up and down, suddenly left and right, jumping forward in a way that completely violates the laws of physics."

"Yes." Liu Feng nodded emphatically, giving Lin Xian a thumbs up. You're great.

"Then how do we capture it!"

Lin Xian felt it was too difficult.

"If we use a robotic arm to mount this rice cooker to capture space-time particles, we always need to see it and predict its subsequent direction based on its trajectory in order to capture it."

"This kind of jumpy movement, like Brownian motion… no, it's flashing movement that's even more excessive than Brownian motion, there's no way to predict the trajectory of space-time particles at all. This capture seems too much like relying on luck, right?"

"[That's why we need to make the space-time particle inactive. ]"

Liu Feng pointed to the rice cooker and explained to Lin Xian.

"Use a robotic arm to clamp this rice cooker to capture space-time particles. Even if we haven't had time to put the lid on, as long as the space-time particle enters the rice cooker… even for just a moment! It will lose its activity… that is, the characteristics of flashing, flickering, and jumping."

"After that, the space-time particle will still move, but it will no longer jump, but will become traceable. Capturing it under such circumstances will be much easier. I know you must think that if this rice cooker is designed to be larger, the success rate of capture will be higher, but that won't work. Even if it's slightly larger, it won't be able to completely inactivate the space-time particle… It will become inert, but it will still flash and jump, and all efforts will be wasted."

……

Lin Xian picked up a rice cooker, which was a space-time particle capturer, from the ground.

It was indeed a little heavier than a normal rice cooker, but not too heavy. It seemed that Liu Feng's physical fitness needed to be strengthened… He stayed in the laboratory all day without exercising, and he was about to become weak.

"I understand."

He looked up at Liu Feng.

"So, you specifically sent the space-time particle capturer here today because you wanted to assemble it on the aerospace plane's robotic arm first, so that Gao Yang could adapt and train in advance."

"It's my intention," Huang Que said.

"The New Year is coming soon. February 10th is the Spring Festival, not many days away. Liu Feng predicts that the time when the space-time particle will reach the Earth's atmosphere is probably at the end of March, and the height at which it passes through the atmosphere is also accurate to the suborbital space between 10 kilometers and 100 kilometers. Time is running out, and it's time for Gao Yang to start training with the robotic arm."

"Gao Yang said something right. He is the most critical person in the entire operation, and he is also the ultimate insurance. Even if all our plans are perfect, all efforts will be in vain if the robotic arm is not operated well and the space-time particle is not captured."

"That's why I asked Liu Feng to work overtime to complete the space-time particle capturer in advance, and prepare to assemble it on the aerospace plane's robotic arm in the next few days, and then install another one on the 1:1 robotic arm simulator, so that Gao Yang can train to ensure that he doesn't mess up."

"That fatty… can he really do it?" Liu Feng frowned.

"He doesn't seem very reliable."

"It's okay. After all, Gao Yang is just a front-line operator and the ultimate insurance," Huang Que smiled and looked at Lin Xian.

"If possible, it would be safer to have your friend secretly operate the robotic arm and give Gao Yang a plug-in."

Liu Feng blinked in confusion.

"Isn't Lin Xian's friend Gao Yang?"

Huang Que shook his head.

"It's another friend."

Liu Feng suddenly woke up, feeling a burst of throbbing.

"Could it be me?"

"…" Huang Que ignored the presumptuous Liu Feng and looked up at Lin Xian.

"You know who I'm talking about, right?"

Lin Xian nodded.

"I know."

……

"That Huang Que is really something. She's a master! She even knows about my existence!"

Night, early morning, 00:43.

VV saw Lin Xian wake up through the phone camera and talked to him using the digital alarm clock.

….

"I thought about it for a long time and couldn't figure it out. Even Kevin Walker didn't discover me. How did she know I existed?"

"She's too OP," Lin Xian rubbed his eyes and sat up from the bed.

"Don't worry about this question. She knows a lot of things. I don't know how she knows. I suspect she's a time traveler, but there's no evidence."

"Her eyes are quite strange."

The digital alarm clock VV said.

"Those are indeed human eyes, not mechanical eyes, electronic eyes, fake eyeballs, colored contact lenses, etc… They are indeed flesh and blood tissue. But the strange thing is that such colored eyes do not exist on Earth. If you insist on saying that it's a genetic mutation, then I have nothing to say, after all, people with four hands, conjoined twins, and two hearts have appeared on this Earth, so genetic mutations are not strange."

"But! Unique cases are very abnormal! There are billions of people living on Earth today, and so many people have lived and died throughout thousands of years of history. There is no record of anyone else having eyes like Huang Que, so… from this point of view, she may not be a normal person."

"But if you think about it this way, then the problem arises. Even if she is a time traveler, her essence is still a human being with flesh and blood. Why would she have such crystal blue eyes? Such eyes are aliens in any human group in any space-time, any dimension, or any parallel world."

Lin Xian waved his hand.

"Oh, I don't think this kind of thing is important. Compared to other things, the color of her eyes is the least noteworthy mystery about Huang Que."

"Let's not talk about this."

He walked to the desk in the dormitory, poured himself a glass of plain water with a cool cup, and drank it all in one gulp.

*Thump*.

The empty cup was placed on the table, and Lin Xian sighed.

"In the dream just now, I still didn't see the Tem Bank airship in the sky."

"This is too strange…"

He frowned.

"I called Brother Wang yesterday and asked him. He said that the factory had already started producing hafnium alloy safes, and the business premises for Tem Bank had also signed a lease contract. I even told Brother Wang not to rent it, but to buy it directly. Anyway, there's plenty of money in the company account."

"Logically speaking, this should have formed a point of no return, right? The night I founded Rhein Company, the second dream became the third dream; but now, Brother Wang's Tem Bank has already progressed halfway, why can't I still see the airship in the fourth dream? What's the problem?"

"I still have the same idea as before, Lin Xian."

VV's voice was very calm.

"[Perhaps your dream… strictly speaking, the fourth dream is not real. It is very likely that the enemy is using it, or that they have built a virtual world studio in advance to trap you and make it difficult for you to distinguish between true and false. ]"

"They won't make this virtual world studio too fake. After all, you're not stupid. If it's too fake, you'll definitely notice it. But fake is fake after all, so in order to prevent you from noticing the wrong details, they arrange plots of being surrounded, electrocuted, and tied to a chair to limit your range of activity and activity time."

Lin Xian spread his hands.

"I don't deny that, so aren't I trying to find a way to verify it? Only Tem Bank is the only coordinate point that can last from now in 2024 to 2624. I can only find Tem Bank in the fourth dream, find the safe with my name on it, and then I can carry out the next plan."

"According to what you said before, aren't the enemies able to read my memories in the future? Then they already know from my memories that Brother Wang is going to build Tem Bank, and they also know that I told Brother Wang to advertise in the sky above the city with an airship every 100th anniversary."

"Then, since they know this, why don't they create it in the dream? If, as you said, my memory is transparent and the dream is fake."

"It's very simple," VV said.

"Lin Xian, do you know what the batch of safes that Brother Wang hasn't made yet look like? Do you know what the font of Tem Bank's trademark looks like?"

"I've seen it in the first and second dreams," Lin Xian replied.

"Brother Wang didn't know you at that time, and he didn't have as much investment as you, and he didn't owe you his gratitude; now that the cause and effect, the predetermined future development route, and many possibilities have changed, can you guarantee that the safe that Brother Wang made is exactly the same as what you saw before? Are the logo details the same?"

Lin Xian was speechless for a moment.

This was indeed a blind spot.

He nodded.

"What you said makes sense, but I also thought of one thing - if my dream is a fake simulated world 600 years from now, then outside this virtual world, there must be a real world 600 years from now, that is, the world where those enemies live."

"Then! Brother Wang's Tem Bank will open sooner or later, and it will definitely open next month or the month after, and it will continue until 600 years later. Even if the enemies can't find the style of the hafnium alloy safe from my memory, they can always find Tem Bank in the real world 600 years from now, right? Whether it's the logo, trademark, or safe style, they can be directly copied into my dream, without having to extract it from my memory."

Alas…

The digital alarm clock VV sighed.

"That's why I said that your fourth dream is wrong and unreasonable."

"I told you a long time ago that according to my understanding of the space-time butterfly effect, Tem Bank's airship should have appeared in your fourth dream a long time ago, just like Sky City in the third dream. That's normal and consistent with space-time logic."

"Your fourth dream is really very strange… I suggest that you implement the plan to verify the truth and falsehood of the dream as soon as possible after capturing the space-time particle this time. Anyway, Brother Wang's Tem Bank should also be established by then. Just right, we can also use space-time particles to reset and calibrate Liu Feng's [Space-Time Clock]. While verifying the reality of the dream through Tem Bank, we can also use the Space-Time Clock to detect the changes in space-time curvature at the same time, killing two birds with one stone."

Lin Xian nodded.

This was the only way.

In the past half month since coming to the astronaut's confidential training base, he would go to his dreams every night to see the mysterious old man and see if Tem Bank's airship had appeared in the sky.

Nothing.

He hadn't seen it once.

Was there a problem with his space-time law? Or was there a problem with Brother Wang's Tem Bank?

But so far…

Huang Que's strict selection proved that there was nothing wrong with the space-time law;

On Brother Wang's side, the opening of Tem Bank was also a foregone conclusion;

It seemed that all the anomalies pointed to a chilling answer—

[His dream may be fake, a studio specially built for him by the enemies. ]

"We must find a way to break the situation," Lin Xian said.

"VV, I still insist on my view that the space-time law is correct and that space-time elasticity exists. The reason why Tem Bank hasn't appeared yet is indeed because a point of no return for the space-time anchor hasn't formed yet."

"I can't deduce the specific reasons and judgment rules right now. But let's wait and see. When Brother Wang's Tem Bank actually opens in reality, Tem Bank's airship should appear in the fourth dream, right?"

"At that time… I will find a way to implement the next plan, use the hafnium alloy safe with my name on it in Tem Bank, put a note in it, and completely verify the authenticity or falsehood of the dream!"

The digital alarm clock VV thought for a while and said softly.

"Lin Xian, the evolution in the past few months has multiplied my intelligence and thinking. Compared to when you first activated me, I am much, much smarter now."

"But even so, even if I use all my computing power, I still can't figure out how you plan to achieve that plan, what kind of content you want to write on that little note to meet the requirements you put forward—"

"[In the case that your memory is completely transparent, and the enemy can open the safe before you and directly copy an identical counterfeit for you to see… you can still understand the truth and falsehood of the dream world the moment you see the content of the note. ]"

"I combined these prerequisites and calculated them billions of times. No matter what method I use, the final conclusion is impossible! Impossible to achieve! This is even a self-contradictory paradox, a game that is destined to be lost."

"Unless…"

VV paused and let out a helpless laugh.

"Unless there really is a miracle."

*Knock knock*.

Suddenly!

A knock on the door came from the silent early morning!

Lin Xian turned his head sharply and looked at the voice-activated light that lit up outside the dormitory door.

"Who is it?"

"Lin… Senior Lin Xian, are you still awake?"

Chu Anqing's cautious voice came from outside the door.

"I just passed by the door and heard you talking on the phone…"

The digital alarm clock’s numbers jumped, turning into a 0_0 expression.

"Oh."

Lin Xian said to the outside of the door.

"I'm a little insomniac tonight and can't sleep, so I chatted with a friend in Donghai on voice chat."

As soon as he finished speaking.

The phone on the table suddenly lit up!

Imitating his voice, it played a sentence at maximum volume.

"[Do you want to come in and chat? ]"

"Damn it!" Lin Xian quickly threw the phone into the quilt and covered it, cursing softly.

"VV, what are you doing!"

"Eh!?"

Outside the door, Chu Anqing was obviously flustered by the indistinguishable voices.

"Is… is it okay?"

*Click*!

The dormitory door's fingerprint lock popped open directly!

The light from the corridor's voice-activated light penetrated through the crack in the door, slowly spreading out…